Is it time to change the drug policy to save lives?

Six months ago top Italian nightclub Cocorico was closed for 4 months after ‘Ecstasy death’.
Every week there are news about ravers who had been taken to hospital after taking “poisoned” Ecstasy pills.

There are pills being sold as ecstasy in Europe today that have killed dozens of young people. Reports never specify exactly what happened, blaming MDMA itself, or a “bad batch” of pills. Victims suffer intense overheating, become panicky, speak quickly and incomprehensibly, convulse, and die.

“In Holland when one of these pills was brought to the testing station, big warning signs went out to all the clubs and the media and, as of yet, nobody has died because of these pills in Holland,” says Amsterdam’s Night Mayor Mirik Milan.

In The US you have Dancesafe, which is a public health organization promoting health and safety within the nightlife and electronic music community by supplying drugs testing kits, safe spaces to engage in conversations about health, drug use, and personal safety in raves and parties.

Are the governments of the world ready to admit that MDMA and other party drugs are being used by people from all ages and walks of life, that for many people from all backgrounds they are considered as part of normal behaviour?
Substances as Special K and Cocaine are popular in the nightlife scene like Tobacco & Alcohol, and yes they are here to stay.

Let’s be honest they are cheap (cheaper than Alcohol) and yes… they are fun to use and people like them.

Nick Clegg, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats in The UK, is hoping for a global reform of drug laws, saying “we are losing the war on drugs”.

In Scotland, Australia & in The UK, club owners, former club owners and drug experts claim the “war on drugs” is not working and are now urging a rethink of the law, a move towards decriminalization and the provision of testing facilities in clubs so drug users know pills they are taking are safe.

“When you criminalize something people don’t know what they’re buying and it’s a Russian roulette”, says Former Sub Club owner Paul Crawford, who worked at the Glasgow-based nightclub for more than 20 years. “If we want to be progressive in our society we have to look at legalizing drugs. I don’t buy into the idea that it will cause a meltdown in society, and that it would open the floodgates and everyone would start going and taking lots of drugs.”

We need to consider if the war on drugs doesn’t cost us more innocent lives than drugs themselves. Is the world ready for a reform in drug policy ?